Redgrave 'called off secret engagement'

Vanessa Redgrave called off an engagement when she was 23 because her family feared that the relationship would affect her career.

The Times reports that letters in the family's archive reveal that Redgrave planned to marry Gavin Welby.

"I have something very special to tell you," she wrote to her father. "I am going to marry a sweet, darling man called Gavin Welby."

However, Redgrave's parents, Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson, feared that Welby was a "rotten piece of work" and were suspicious of their daughter's assurances that he had agreed to let her pursue her acting career.

"Vanessa is completely infatuated," Kempson wrote to her husband. "I only pray we can prevent marriage."

Redgrave broke off the engagement a few months later. In another letter to her father, she explained: "I have decided not to marry Gavin because, although I do love him, for various reasons I know it wouldn't work.

"I had a talk with Mum this evening and realised that it is the only thing to do."

Redgrave was recently presented with a lifetime achievement award.